When your Lord took out all their descendants from the loins of the children of Adam and made them testify against themselves 'Am I not your Lord?' they said, 'We testify that indeed You are!' Lest you say on the Day of Resurrection, 'We knew nothing of this.'

(Surat- Al-A'raf:172)

A Hadith

A person asked Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him): "What is faith?" He said: "When a good deed becomes a source of pleasure for you and an evil deed becomes a source of disgust for you, then you are a believer." He again said to Allah's Messenger: "What is a sin?" Whereupon he said: "When something pricks your conscience, give it up."

Allah has sent messengers to communicate His divine message to all the human societies that have ever lived. As is emphasized in the Qur'an, these messengers, with all their behavior and fine moral attributes, are role models for believers. Prophet Hud (as), sent by Allah as an envoy to the people of 'Ad, is one such holy individual, honored by Allah with the role and responsibility of being a prophet.

To direct their lives, people choose very different "teachers" or guides. Some select an ideology such a Communism or Capitalism as their guide, imagining that the thinker who first came up with these ideologies was a "superior" individual and that they can attain the truth by following in that person's footsteps. The greatest guide for many people is the society they live in. They determine their value judgments, their sense of right and wrong, of what is true and what is false, according to the general thinking that prevails in society inn general. Others recognize none of these standards, and instead claim to use their own reason and intuition as their only guides.

However, all of these ideas are founded on one common misconception. People who harbor such ideas reject-or else ignore-one most important fact: Any human being is a created entity and owes all he has to Allah. Anyone who carefully examines his own body, his environment, the skies above or anything else in existence can clearly see that all these have been created by Almighty Allah.

The sole true reason for any person's creation is to serve Allah; and human beings are created in such a way as to take pleasure from serving Him. In so doing, they are acting in accord with the purpose of their own creation. But although the Qur'an tells us that it is human nature to serve Allah alone, it also informs us that most people are unaware of this great basic truth.

Some of the unaware do not possess the ability to be aware of Allah and to see the truth by themselves. Yet our Lord, the infinitely compassionate and loving, sends them messengers who will them and tell them of the existence of Allah and of the Hereafter, and of the true meaning of life. It is revealed in the Qur'an that every society has been warned by an envoy:

We sent a Messenger among every people saying: "Worship Allah and keep clear of all false gods." Among them were some whom Allah guided but others received the misguidance they deserved. Travel about the Earth and see the final fate of the deniers. (Surat an-Nahl: 36)

EXAMPLES TO LIVING FOSSILS:

LUNGFISH

Age: 350 million years old

Size: 18.5 centimeters (7.3 in)

Location: Miguasha, Gaspesie

Period: Upper Devonian

Today's lungfish live mostly in Africa and South America. When the water level falls and a river dries up, these fish survive by burying themselves in the mud. The oldest known fossil of a lungfish dates from the Devonian period (417 to 354 million years ago). The fossil pictured also dates back to this period. There is no difference between a lungfish of today and one that lived 350 million years ago. These fish have not changed in hundreds of millions of years and offer proof that living creatures did not evolve, they were created.

SEQUOIA STEM WITH SEEDPODS ON BRANCH

Age:54 to 37 million years old

Size: Leaf, 7 centimeters (2.7 in) by 10.7 centimeters (4.3 in)

Location: British Columbia

Formation: Cache Creek Formation

Period: Eocene

There is no difference between sequoia trees growing today and those that were growing millions of years ago. This proves that plants, like animals, did not undergo a process of evolution.

THE NAMES OF ALLAH:

AR-WALIThe Protecting Friend

Allah is the Protector of those who believe. He brings them out of the darkness into the light. But those who disbelieve have false gods as protectors. They take them from the light into the darkness. Those are the Companions of the Fire remaining in it timelessly, for ever.(Qur'an, 2: 257)

A believer has one true friend, both in this world and in the hereafter. That friend will never abandon him, is at his side during times of difficulty, and is his helper. He is always with him, from the day of his birth to the day of his death. He protects him from his enemies. He is therefore more trustworthy than anyone, and gives without expecting anything in return. That incomparable friend is Allah. Allah is believers' most trusted, closest friend. He frees those who believe in Him from weakness and error, gives them a superior life as well as endless happiness in the hereafter.

Those who are unaware of this, however, spend all their lives looking for a rich and capable person or force they can trust: one powerful enough to resolve their problems no matter what the situation. Yet in doing so they forget our Lord, who created them, who allows them to lead their lives, possesses great knowledge and has power to do anything. They turn to Satan, who contributes nothing to their lives apart from evil, and prevents them from enjoying their share of paradise in the hereafter. That is the beginning of the end for such people, the entrance to a dark world. Those who believe in Allah and have sincere faith, however, enter a noble and auspicious life free of all suffering and loss. Because Allah has ensured that those who believe in Him and stay true to His religion and words will be saved. He will give them their truly great reward in the hereafter. Allah is the only true friend of believers in this world and the next.

He is Allah-there is no god but Him. He is the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible. He is the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful. He is Allah-there is no god but Him. He is the King, the Most Pure, the Perfect Peace, the Trustworthy, the Safeguarder, the Almighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great. Glory be to Allah above all they associate with Him. (Qur'an, 59: 22-24)

THE EVOLUTION DECEIT:

Bone Cells That Sculpt Cannot Be the Products of Chance

The cells found in bone known as osteoclasts enable changes in the shape and size of bones and let them in time increase to adult dimensions by carving away in certain areas of bone. They also decrease the size of protrusions on the bone surface. During the demolition process performed by osteoclasts, other cells known as osteoblasts begin to form new bone tissue to reconstitute the skeleton.

The cells perform the same task within the bones of every human being. They all know how to reduce and shape the bone surface. Aware of the differences between the skull and the thigh bone, they know how to shape any given bone, when to stop its growth, and how thick or thin the eventual bone is to be. These cells prepare the body's skeleton with the greatest care, just like a sculptor. It is Almighty God Who inspires every step taken by these cells that creates the hardness, length, shape, protrusions and cavities of every part of the skeleton.

The Miracle of Blood Clotting

The process of blood clotting resembles the first aid performed by ambulance crews called out to attend a traffic accident.

When bleeding takes place in any region of the body, blood platelets known as thrombocytes are dispersed throughout the bloodstream. Wherever bleeding may occur, thrombocytes will always be on call nearby.
Just like a traffic officer, a protein known as Von Willebrand indicates the site of the accident, halts the thrombocytes when it detects them and causes them to remain in the site of the incident. The first thrombocyte to arrive attracts others to the site by emitting a special substance, just as if it were summoning assistance.

At this point, 20 enzymes in the body come together to begin producing a protein known as thrombin, which is produced only in the presence of an open wound. This is similar to a first-aid team administering the necessary drugs at a crash site. In addition, the production must be at just the right level, and the production of thrombin must also start and stop right on time. The enzymes that produce this protein seem to decide among themselves when production should begin and cease.

Once a sufficient quantity of thrombin has been manufactured, small fibers known as fibrinogen form, creating a microscopic network in the blood, to which the thrombocytes adhere and accumulate. Once this accumulation has become sufficiently dense, bleeding stops These enzymes and proteins are structures consisting of different arrangements of blind, unconscious, inanimate atoms. Yet each one assumes a function from the moment the incident occurs and they are all "organized" in such a way as to halt the flow of blood in the most speedy manner. The apparent consciousness displayed by these collections of atoms is doubtless a great miracle and cannot, of course, be the product of "evolution," a process totally dependent on chance.

THE SIGNS LEADING TO FAITH :

The Rhythm of the Atoms

The world's finest minds can unravel only with difficulty the deeper workings of nature, how could it be supposed that those workings are merely a mindless accident, a product of blind chance? Paul Davies, Professor of Theoretical Physics (Paul Davies, Superforce, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984, p. 235-23)

Scientists are in general agreement that, on the basis of calculations, the Big Bang took place about 17 billion years ago. Nevertheless, the universe that emerged from the Big Bang could have been much different from the one that did emerge-ours.

For example, if the values of four fundamental forces were different, the universe would have consisted of only radiation and become a tissue of light with no stars, galaxies, human beings, or anything else. Thanks to the extraordinary perfect balance of those four forces, "atoms"-the building-blocks of that which is called "matter"-came into being.

Scientists are also in general agreement that the first two simplest elements-hydrogen and helium-began to form during the first fourteen seconds after the Big Bang. The elements were formed as a result of a reduction in the universal entropy that was causing matter to scatter everywhere. In other words, at first the universe was just an amassing of hydrogen and helium atoms. If it had remained so, again there could have been no stars, planets, stones, soil, trees, or human beings. It would have been a lifeless universe consisting of only those two elements.

Carbon, the fundamental element of life, is a much heavier element than hydrogen and helium. How did it come into being? It is obvious that Allah created all the universe with a unique creation.

BOOK OF THE DAY:

Signs of the End Times in Surat Al-Kahf

Surat al-Kahf contains the signs required for the believers' defense and fight against the Dajjal (the Anti-Christ) and the irreligious movements bringing so much evil to humanity, which he wants to spread around the world, as well as many lessons from which the Muslims can learn. Our Prophet's (saas) recommendation to memorize and read this sura attentively is a clear indication of this.

As you will see in this book, the experiences of Ashab al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave) in an unbelieving world, the lessons Prophet Musa (as) learned from Khidhr (as), and Dhu'l-Qarnayn's (as) rule over the world, established to disseminate Islam's values, are matters upon which the believers need to reflect. By Allah's will, this time is very near, so much so that it has become crucial for people to reflect upon this matter. Thus, Muslims must ponder Surat al-Kahf carefully, bear its verses in mind, and analyze each verse in light of the Qur'an's other verses.

The Qur'an is the word of God and it has many miraculous attributes proving this fact. One of these attributes is the fact that a number of scientific truths that we have only been able to uncover by the technology of the 20th century were stated in the Qur'an 1,400 years ago. Of course the Qur'an is not a book of science. However, many scientific facts that are expressed in an extremely concise and profound manner in its verses have only been discovered with the technology of the 20th century. These facts could not have been known at the time of the Qur'an's revelation, and this is still more proof that the Qur'an is the word of God.